Buckle



(No Model.)

'W. D. EWART.

Buckle.

Patented Feb .s,18s1. v

Enron.

PATENT WILLIAM J). nwnn'r, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

' BUCKLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 287,506, dated February 8, 1881.

Application filed November 17, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM DANA Ewnn'r,

of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Buckles and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and. exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this application.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in buckles, the nature of which will be presently more explicitly described.

Under the older modes of construction of buckles the frames were so made and the tongues so combined with them that the root of the tongue was not effectually held in a central position endwise of the back bar of the frame; but in. the later modes of manufacture the retention of the root of the tongue in a position aboutcentral (endwise) of the backbar of the frame (on which bar the tongue is hung) has been effected by placing the eye or loop formed at the root end of the tongue between slight projections formed on the said back bar at the back side of the frame. In this construction of buckle, however, although the eye or loop of the tongue-root (which is bentround and hinges on the backbar of theframe)-is held in place endwise of the bar on which it is hung, the point or free end of the tongue has considerable play laterally, so that it sometimes gets turned out of place and toward one of the front angles of the frame. This defect arises from the practical difficulty in (if not an impossibility of) making the bent loop at the root of the tongue fit round the middle part of the back bar of the buckle with that perfection of bearing-surface which would be necessary to render the tongue capable of free movement about said back bar as an axis of vibration, and yet incapable of any lateral vibration or swing.

One object of my invention is to cure this defect in buckles as heretofore made; and to this end and object the first part of my invention consists in a buckle the back bar of the frame of which is made with a doubly-shouldered bearing at or near its middle portion, and adapted to fit in the eye of and confine laterally at its root end the tongue of the buckle, and thus, while permitting the tongue to vibrate freely about the back bar in the proper direction, confining it against any lateral movement, all as will be hereinafter more fully set forth.

Another imperfection sought to be cured by my invention is the defective fitting together of the back bar of the frame and the eye of the tongue that necessarily follows the usual method of articulating or hingin g together these parts-- -viz., by bending and shaping the material of the tongue at its eye around the back bar of the frame and to remedy this de fect is the object of the second part of my invention, which, to this end, consists in moldin g or castin g the back bar of the frame within the cylindrical eyeof the (previously-formed) tongue, whereby I am enabled to effect a perfect articulation about the back bar of an eye (at the root of the tongue) which has the continuity of its bearing-surface unbroken, all as will be hereinafter more fully explained.

As heretofore made, the buckle-frame (when made of cast metal) has had a small depression or recess cast in the upper surface and at the inneredge of thefront bar, to receive and hold in place the lower partof the pointof the tongue; but as in the manufacture the shapes of the points of the tongues, especially when made of cast metal, will vary some, and as it is desirable to have always a perfectfitof the tongues point in the recess of the front bar of the frame, 1 propose to render the manufactured article more desirable by havin the recess to always perfectly match the point of the tongue to be received in it; and to this end and object the third part of my invention consists in a buckle the recess in the front bar of the frame of which is formed by casting or molding said bar against the front end of the tongue, the point of the latter thus serving as the pattern for the said recess, all as will be hereinafter more fully explained.

To enable those skilled in the art to which my invention relates to make and use the same, I will now proceed to more fully describe the several features of the same, referring by letters to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, and in which- Figure 1 is a top view of a buckle made according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a similar view, but with the point of the tongue broken off, (to better show the recess adapted to receive it,) and with the root portionof the tongue drawn in section, to better show the shouldered bearing for the eye of the tongue.

Fig. 3 is a side or edge view; and Fig. 4 is a.

section at m 00, Fig. 1, but with the point of the tongue raised up, while Fig. 5 is a view of the tongue only of the buckle.

At Fig. 6 I have shown, in top view, (with the tongue turned back,) amodifieation of the buckle, in which the front bar is encircled by the usual roller, and consequently is not recessed at all, (for the accommodation of the point of the tongue.)

In the several figures the same parts will be found designated by the same letters of reference.

In the buckle shown at Figs. 1 to 5, inclusive, every part is made of cast metal, preferably malleable iron, while the buckle seen at Fig. 6 is similarly made, except as to the tubular roller of the front bar, which, as usual, is made of sheet metal simply bent into cylindrical form to completely surround and loosely fit on the said bar.

The frame'A of the buckle and its tongue B may be made of anydesign and size desired, and the former, when the buckle embraces all the parts of my invention, is made, as shown, with a recess or depression at c, which is designed to accommodate the point 01 of the tongue. This tongue B is cast with an eye, 6,

at its attached end, the interior of which eye perfect, as seen at Fig. 5.

e is perfectly cylindrical in form, and fits or conforms perfectly (though not tightly) to the central cylindrical portion, f, of the back bar of the frame, that lies between thetwo circular collars i 6, formed on said back bar.

The collars i t are preferably cast solid with the back bar of the frame A, and the cylindrical part f of said bar. lying between said collars is made of about the same diameter, and consequently of about the same strength and durability, as if the said back bar were of the old-fashioned pattern, not provided with the means for holding the root of the tongue laterally. Thisisimportant,because,ifthe said back bar should be materially reduced at its middle portion to form a shouldered bearing for the eye of the ton gues root, said bar would be weakened to an extent not compensated for by the advantage of holding thetongue properly in place; and in order to get shoulders sufficient for the designed purpose said back bar would have to be so reduced as to materially weaken it.

The eye 0 completely surrounds the journallike partfof the frame, and is cast solid with the rest of the tongue B, and without any break or joint in it. To make the buckle with this sort of eye 0 thus coupled with the back bar of the frame A, I first cast the tongue B I then place this tongue properly inthe moldin which the frame A is to be cast in such manner that in pouring the metal for the frame-casting it will run through and fill the bore of the eye 0, and also flow (in the mold) around the lower part of the point d of the tongue, the collars at i t being formed,of course, at the same time, by the mold in which the frame is cast. By preference I thus mold the frame round about the tongue before having cleaned the casting B, because the sand usually left on the surface "of the tongue-casting may tend to make the part f cast very slightly smaller than it otherwise might, and thus the subsequent separation of the surface of f from the bore-surface of eye 0 may be facilitated; but the natural shrinkage of the metal of frame A in cooling will insure a ready separation of the adjacent surfaces of eye 0 and bar f, so that after the article shall have been finished (by the usual m alleableizin g and cleaning processes) the tongue B may be easily turned on its pivotal bar at f, and will always after work thereon with perfect freedom, though without any side motion or wabble to the tongue, since the eye 6 will. always fit perfectly on the part f and between the right-angular shoulders formed at the ends of portions f by the collars i If deemed expedient, the pattern or shape of the eye may be so varied at each side or end, and that of the collars a; t may be so changed, thatin the described process of manufacture these collars i i will set slightly within correspondingly shaped depressions in the end portions of the eye 0; but such and other mere modifications are, of course, not material to the described invention.

So far as the first part of my invention is concerned, the buckle might be made Without either casting the back bar through the solid eye 0 or using any depression at 0 for the point of the tongue, because the latter feature of construction may, as illustrated in the kind of buckle seen at Fig. 6, be omitted Without depriving the article of the advantages consequent to the use of either the first or the second features of my invention, and because by making the eye 0 open or U-shaped in casting the tongue B (as illustrated by the dotted lines at Fig. 1) said eye might be subsequently bent around the part f and into precisely the shape already described, thus producing substantially the same construction, though in a more expensive and laborious manner and with less perfection of manufacture.

By using the point d of the tongue as the pattern for molding in the recess 0 it follows, of course, that every buckle of any number manufactured will have the point d and recess a matching together better than if the recess 0 were molded by another pattern to which all the cast ton gue-points might not, by reason of variations in said tongue-castings, exactly fit.

I need not describe any more minutely than I already have the process of casting the back bar of the frame through the previously-cast eye portion 0 of the tongue, as this process, per se, is analogous to that practiced in the casting of one part onto another, so as to be capable subsequently of motion between the connected parts in the manufacture of other articles, and is understood by those skilled in the arts and familiar with the manufacture of articles in which such process is employed.

As I have already clearly indicated, separate parts only of my invention may be used with more or less advantage, though I prefer to always employ together both the first and second parts, and to always use also, where the buckle is not of such character as to render it inapplicable, (as indicated, for instance,

at Fig. 6,) the third part of my invention.

Having now so fully explained the nature of the several features of my invention and so described each-as to its construction and operation that those skilled in the art can make and use buckles embodying either one or more of said features of invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A buckle the back bar of the frame of which has collars i i, forming raised shoulders adapted to retain the root of the tongue laterally, and which has a tongue, the eye or loop of which encircles that portion of the back bar lying between said shoulders, all substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. A buckle having the back bar of the frame provided with raised shoulders and atongue, the eye at the root of which fits around the back bar, and between its shoulders and is cast solid, substantially as set forth.

3. As an improved method of maliiufacture of buckles having cast frames, molding the recess for the tongue-point of each buckle by the point of its tongue-piece, as and for the purpose set forth.

Inwituess whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 13th day of November, 1880.

WILLIAM D. EWART.

In presence of- O. R. MATSON, J. M. DODGE. 

